Nomura says Kingdom Hearts III's delay was an attempt to release the game "as simultaneously as possible"

In an interview with IGN, Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura explained that the decision behind delaying Kingdom Hearts III's release to 2019 had to do with an attempt to shorten the gap between the Japanese and Western releases while being mindful of its marketing.

"The timing of release that we were actually looking at, we were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, marketing teams, sales teams that it just wasn't a good timing in the year."

Nomura explained that they had to consider holiday lengths and how stores behaved in different regions.

"...For Kingdom Hearts 3, the [Square Enix] western offices had requested to release the game as simultaneously as much as possible between Japan and America, so we were no longer able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situations."

Nevertheless, Nomura and the team still attempted to avoid a delay, but found out they were just not in the position to.

"We of course considered maybe speeding up development to release earlier than when we were told wasn't good, but the development team said that 'No, we just couldn't do that. We could delay it, but we couldn't make it any sooner.'"

Despite the delay, Nomura pointed to the advantage of having a little more time to refine the game before its release.

I mean, understandable... But why the 4 days difference... It doesn't make sense

This is exactly my feeling, especially because it's customary in Europe for games to release on Friday, which would be the same day as Japan. Every single KH game was released on a Friday in Europe, why are they ruining it for us now?

It's so unnecessary and this 4 day gap will definitely ruin the game for many unsuspecting souls because of how long it will take to play KH3. We can't stay off the internet for a month can we?

I thought it was because of the demo feedback. But they made a smart choice for marketing. Smash and Pokemon out this year. Those games can claim the 2018 gaming title, but let's hope kh3 claims next year's title.

There still is absolutely no good reason or excuse for it not to be an international release. Period. If they were truly about marketing they would know international markets bring in more money than Japan on sales. UGH

In an interview with IGN, Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura explained that the decision behind delaying Kingdom Hearts III's release to 2019 had to do with an attempt to shorten the gap between the Japanese and Western releases while being mindful of its marketing.

"The timing of release that we were actually looking at, we were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, marketing teams, sales teams that it just wasn't a good timing in the year."

Nomura explained that they had to consider holiday lengths and how stores behaved in different regions.

"...For Kingdom Hearts 3, the [Square Enix] western offices had requested to release the game as simultaneously as much as possible between Japan and America, so we were no longer able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situations."

Nevertheless, Nomura and the team still attempted to avoid a delay, but found out they were just not in the position to.

"We of course considered maybe speeding up development to release earlier than when we were told wasn't good, but the development team said that 'No, we just couldn't do that. We could delay it, but we couldn't make it any sooner.'"

Despite the delay, Nomura pointed to the advantage of having a little more time to refine the game before its release.

Kingdom Hearts IIIwill release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25, 2019 in Japan, and January 29, 2019 to the rest of the world.

Follow our coverage of Kingdom Hearts III at E3 2018, and our live updates on Twitter!

This is exactly my feeling, especially because it's customary in Europe for games to release on Friday, which would be the same day as Japan. Every single KH game was released on a Friday in Europe, why are they ruining it for us now?

It's so unnecessary and this 4 day gap will definitely ruin the game for many unsuspecting souls because of how long it will take to play KH3. We can't stay off the internet for a month can we?

well I allready plan on taking my overtime when it comes out or something. I could understand it if it was World of warcraft (people have been injured in stores) But KH3? I have no doubt that it will be A huge sucess but I to see no reason why it should come out in the middle of the week

Ah, so this was the reason behind the delay, huh? It's actually quite understandable, given the heavy slew of games coming out from September to December! Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, Spider-Man, Spyro Reignited, Read Dead Redemption 2, Call Of Duty Black Ops 4, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and others here and there present a huge slew of competition! So pushing the release of the game back to January is a wise and smart move, because that way, the game releases in a month where there's no major competition, and even if there was so, it'd probably only be like one other game! And it also gives the team time to polish up the game and kink out the bugs so that the final product is something truly spectacular!

So really, I'm not bothered at all at the delay! It's the only time Kingdom Hearts III has truly been delayed, but it's for a good reason, and hey, we've waited so many years already! Twelve out of anticipation, five out of development, so just seven more months won't kill us, ya know? I'm very much looking forward to the future!

The fact of the matter is, now that we finally have an official release date, we no longer have to speculate on when the game comes out, because we have a clear date!